


The Art of Flying

by PixeledPurple



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: A few others have minor rolls, Cross Faction Bonding, Flight Frame Culture, Flying, Flying Lessons, Friendship, Gen, Newbuilds, Non-Sexual Shower Scene, Seekers, Team Dynamics, Washracks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:07:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27104713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PixeledPurple/pseuds/PixeledPurple
Summary: Starscream wasn't around when Megatron created the Stunticons, or when the Aerialbots came online.  When he learns about new flightframes amongst the Autobot ranks, he's not happy, and Primus, did the Autobots even teach these newbuilds how to properly fly?  Does he have to do everything around here?!
Comments: 27
Kudos: 81





	The Art of Flying

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TempleVevHelm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TempleVevHelm/gifts).



> Takes place right around the G1 episode War Dawn. Except Megatron never gets his brilliant idea that sends them into the past so they never go to Cybertron.
> 
> I want to make a point of saying that I am not shipping the Aerialbots with anyone. Any relationships that they develop here are strictly platonic. They need family kind of love in this fic, not romantic love. <3 Anyone else you can read as platonic or romantic, nothing’s explicitly stated.
> 
> This if was written for an art-fic exchange for [citrus-art-and-life](https://citrus-art-and-life.tumblr.com).

Starscream watched the monitor with a frown. He honestly couldn’t believe it. Of course Megatron was stupid enough to have created the Stunticons, but then the Autobots had to go and outdo him by creating new _jets_? They didn’t know the first thing about flight frames! How were they supposed to learn… well, anything? This was all that idiot Megatron’s fault.

"Starscream!"

Starscream scowled, speaking of the chaos bringer…

***

"I can’t believe you wouldn’t let us shoot back," Skywarp muttered as Starscream welded a wound closed on his arm.

It had been the first battle both the Aerialbots and the seekers had fought in. "They’re newbuilds, you really want to shoot them?" Starscream demanded.

Skywarp grumbled but didn’t answer. Despite Skywarp’s protests, they all felt the same: the newbuilds had no place in this war, but as long as they were in it, they needed proper training. And that was something the Autobots were not going to give them.

***

Starscream kept an optic on the Aerialbots in the next battle. They where bombarding the Decepticon troops from the air. He could have taken out at least three of them, but he ignored them. Even when Air Raid came after him, he just took evasive maneuvers until the other got distracted by the ground troops again.

Starscream divided his attention between the Autobots he was shooting at and the Aerialbots he was making a point of _not_ shooting at. That was when he saw Fireflight do a dangerous turn, gaining altitude as he flew sideways for a moment without first considering the wind.

"Slag!" Starscream cursed. He saw it before it happened. After as much experience as he had had with Earth wind currents, he could tell the other was in trouble long before Fireflight could.

Abandoning his current course, he shot not towards Fireflight, but towards the spot he predicted he would end up after loosing control and tumbling through the air. He transformed above him, dropping down on top of the jet.

"Hey! What are you doing?!" Fireflight shouted. In a panic, he opted to flail around in the air, instead of trying to course correct despite the rapidly approaching ground.

"Hold still you idiot!" Starscream grabbed him just in front of his wings, and spun around to force him into the correct position and a downward angle. If the other would just cooperate for a klik, he could get him righted and-

"Get off me!" it wasn’t even anger in the other’s voice, it was panic.

Starscream sighed, newbuilds. He gave the jet a quick shove, then transformed back into alt mode, flying just inches above the other, effectively forcing him to land. Both jets transformed when they neared the ground.

"What are you doing? Are you trying to get me to crash?!"

Starscream ignored him, "You idiot! You need to take the air currents into account at the higher altitude before attempting a maneuver like that! Who taught you to fly?"

"I know how to fly!"

"You nearly crashed!"

"I’m fine!"

"You’re fine because I saved your sorry aft!"

Silverbolt and Slingshot had apparently noticed their missing comrade as they came in, transforming as they landed behind him.

Starscream decided to take the opportunity to teach them something as well. "And you!" he said, pointing at Silverbolt. "Do you have any idea how to take a proper decent? With your alt mode you can’t do nosedives like you do! It takes too long for you pull up. If you hit an air pocket you.re going to crash right into the ground!"

"Uh… Really?"

"Hey, we don’t need tips from you," Slingshot said, defensively. "We know how to fly!"

"Maybe on Cybertron! Maybe in controlled conditions, but a war zone on a foreign planet with an entirely different atmosphere? You’re all going to get yourselves killed!"

"Who are you to tell us what to do?" Slingshot demanded.

"I am the arial commander of the Decepticons and was the pride of the Cybertron War Academy back in the day. I spent millennia teaching newbuilds like you how to fly."

That gave even Slingshot pause.

"Really?" Fireflight asked.

"Of course," Starscream hitched up his wings just a bit.

"Do you think you could teach us?"

"Fireflight," Silverbolt put a hand on his shoulder. "He’s a Decepticon."

"So what? I still don’t understand the point of this stupid war anyway. Would you?" he asked, turning to Starscream again.

Starscream stared at him for a moment, then at the other two. Slowly, he nodded. "Someone’s got to, I suppose," he said, his tone haughty. "Those idiot Autobots have no business sparking flight frames if they’re not going to teach you how to fly."

"Hey, wait a minute," Silverbolt protested.

Starscream ignored him, "Meet me here tomorrow at dawn and bring the rest of your cohort. I suggest you not tell the Autobots about this."

Both Slingshot and Fireflight nodded. "I don’t think this is a good idea guys," Silverbolt said.

Starscream transformed, hovering in mid air for a moment, "Oh, and if you even think of springing a trap, I promise you and your Autobot compatriots are going to regret it."

Before any of them could respond, Starscream was gone, shooting up into the sky faster than any of them had seen a jet take off.

"We can’t meet him," Silverbolt said.

"We already said we would, we don’t want to be rude," Fireflight said. Silverbolt gave him a look.

Fireflight just shrugged, "I’m going, you can come, or don’t."

"Yeah," Slingshot agreed.

Silverbolt watched as they took off to join the rest of the Autobots. The battle had fizzled out while they were speaking, apparently, both sides now retreating.

***

Air Raid and Skydive were thrilled by the idea of spending time with one of the seekers, and Silverbolt was outnumbered, four to one. Reluctantly, he followed the others back to the site of the last battle. There, they found not just Starscream, but all of the command trine. Silverbolt was instantly wary.

"Well good to know someone at least taught you how to tell time," Starscream said, stepping forward as they landed. "What training have you had, exactly?"

"Mostly fighting," Fireflight admitted.

"Wheeljack taught us about weapons," Skydive added.

"And Ratchet told us to not get ourselves slagged or he would make us sorry," Fireflight chimed in. "He didn’t mean it though," he added when he noticed the looks everyone was giving him.

Starscream sighed and behind him, Skywarp snickered. "I meant about flying."

"Oh."

"We were built from Cybertronian shuttles, it was already coded in us how to fly," Air Raid told him.

Starscream stared at them with the most incredulous look any of them had ever seen. "Your frames were built from insentient, millennia old machines. Your sparks were coded with only the most basic flight data. Are you telling me the Autobots sent you out into battle with _nothing_?"

"Hey, we’ve done all right!" Slingshot said defensively.

"Considering what you were given-"

"Which is nothing," Thundercracker mumbled.

"Yes, you’ve done remarkably well."

The five aerialbots exchanged glances at that, not quite sure if it was a compliment or an insult.

"Flying is more than just take offs and landings and not crashing into anything in between," Skywarp said.

"It’s an art," Starscream agreed.

"Why would you be willing to help us?" Silverbolt asked.

Starscream stared at him for a klik, "Because it’s apparently still in my coding to not let newbuilds get themselves slagged."

***

It was nearly five joors later that the aerialbots flew back to the Autobot base, utterly exhausted. Even Slingshot had to admit that they clearly knew nothing compared to the seekers. Silverbolt had quickly dropped his suspicions as he listened to what the seekers had to say, seeing for himself how much they were all improving after such a short time.

"Where have you been?" Ratchet asked, passing them in the hall.

"Oh, we were-"

"Just flying!" Air Raid interrupted Silverbolt.

Ratchet narrowed his optics at them, "Flying where?"

"…in the sky?" Fireflight asked.

Ratchet sighed in the way that clearly meant 'I’m too old for this slag.' "Just make sure you don’t burn anything out. I’m still not quite sure what your limits are and I don’t want anything to happen when I’m not there to fix it."

"Right."

"Got it."

The five of them hurried off before Ratchet could actually start questioning them.

***

"That was so much fun!" Skywarp practically bounced into their quarters.

"I don’t remember you enjoying teaching so much," Starscream couldn’t help but grin. Skywarp was right, it had been a wonderful training session. Teaching newbuilds to fly was so much different than commanding the Decepticon seekers in one of the same few dozen flight formations for the thousandth time. It was… rewarding.

"Thy actually listen to me, unlike your students. Washracks?"

"Yes," Thundercracker agreed.

Starscream nodded, leading the way, "My students were disciplined."

"And boring."

"At least they knew what they were doing," Thundercracker muttered, turning on the solvent.

"Oh come on! They’re fast learners! Considering…"

"Considering the Autobots didn’t teach them anything," Starscream muttered, picking up a washcloth.

"I don’t understand why. They have Powerglide. And…" Skywarp trailed off, glancing at Starscream.

"And Skyfire," Starscream finished. "Turn around."

Skywarp did.

"I doubt he realized they hadn’t gotten any training. Shuttles are different, they can’t do the maneuvers jets can, he wouldn’t have expected to be asked to help in their training," Starscream started lathering Skywarp’s wings, gently rubbing small circles in the sensitive metal, cleaning off the dust that had collected there during their flight. The high moisture content in the Earth’s atmosphere caused small droplets of condensation to form and trickle down into seems, taking dust, and dirt, and all sorts of unpleasant particles with it.

Starscream worked carefully, dipping the cloth into seems and letting the hot solvent wash everything away. It was just a moment later that Thundercracker came up behind him, starting the same treatment on his own wings, "Are we just going to keep training them in secret?"

"And then pretending to actually try to shoot them on the battlefield?" Skywarp added. "I don’t want to really fight them Star."

"Of course not. They’re newbuilds, we can’t actually hurt them."

"And when Megatron realizes we’re going easy on them?"

"Or what if someone else shoots one of them?"

"We just have to train them well enough that they won’t get hurt." It went unsaid that the war showed no sign of ending any time soon, and it was pretty much inevitable that eventually, something would happen.

"What happens once we’ve trained them?" Thundercracker asked after a klik. "If we don’t want to shoot at them now…"

"We’ll worry about that when the time comes," Starscream said, his tone left no room for argument.

They washed each other’s wings in a companionable silence for a a few kliks, just enjoying the company of their trine.

"Silverbolt is so cute," Skywarp said suddenly.

"What?"

"He’s a flight frame afraid of heights."

"Ugh, don’t remind me." Starscream cycled his optics.

"Well I think it’s cute."

"You think they’re all cute," Starscream scoffed, fighting the smile tugging at his face.

"They are! I think Fireflight’s my favorite. Of scrap! I mean… don’t tell them I have favorites!"

Starscream chucked as Thundercracker shoot his head.

***

"Are we really going to keep this from them?" Silverbolt asked, sitting on his berth.

"We can’t tell them! They won’t let us go back," Skydive answered, trying to dry off his wings with a towel.

"Here," Air Raid stood, taking it from him to help.

"But they’re Decepticons," Silverbolt persisted.

"They’re _helping_ us," Skydive said with all the exhaustion of a mech who had had the same argument a hundred times already. "You agreed to go with us."

"When it was just once… And it was mostly because I didn’t want you to go alone. But if this is going to be a regular thing, I just don’t think it’s a good idea."

"You want to stop? Did you see me out there today?" Slingshot asked. "I was awesome! Better than I’ve ever flown!"

Silverbolt ignored the boasting, "I know but I still don’t think we should keep this from the Autobots."

"Why are the Decepticons so bad anyway?" Fireflight murmured. "The seekers have been nothing but nice to us."

"Yeah, maybe we’re on the wrong side," Air Raid suggested, satisfied with Skydive’s wings. "Do mine too? I can’t quite reach underneath."

"We’re not! You saw what the Decepticons tried to do the the Earth! The Autobots would never do that."

"I don’t know, I thought it looked better in metal."

"But it’s not living metal like we are. The life here is organic."

"Either way," Skydive interrupted, "Starscream and his trine weren’t there."

"That’s right," Fireflight said thoughtfully. "We’ve never seen them hurt anyone. It was just Megatron and Soundwave."

"Megatron’s the one in charge, and Starscream called him an aft at least three times this morning," Air Raid put in.

Silverbolt stared at his hands, he still didn’t feel comfortable with all this.

***

"Hey Wheeljack?"

"Hmm?"

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Silverbolt asked, coming into the lab.

"Yeah, sure! Just give me a klik here," Wheeljack finished up whatever he was doing with a microscope and turned to look at him. "Sorry about that, what can I do for you?"

"Well," he hesitated. He didn’t want to get anyone in trouble, but he also didn’t think it was a good idea to be going behind the Autobot’s backs. "The others have been talking about learning more about flying."

"Oh. Like tricks?"

"Well, sort of, but really, just… more? There’s more to driving than just forward and reverse, right?"

Wheeljack put a hand in his chin thoughtfully, "Ok, I see what you mean. I guess we could talk to Powerglide. He certainly likes to show off, I’m sure he could teach you something."

"What if someone already offered?"

"Oh, well that’s great. But who?"

"Um… Promise you won’t get mad?"

"Uh, sure. Why would I get mad?"

"Starscream."

Wheeljack just stared at him, "What?"

"Starscream offered. And his trine."

"He what?!"

"You promised not to get mad!"

"You can’t- when did you even talk to him! They’re Decepticons, you can’t trust them!"

"But they’re really good! And Starscream was an instructor at the Cybertron War Academy! He’s a really good teacher."

"How do you know that?"

"Um."

"Please don’t tell me you met with him."

"Just once."

"Silverbolt you can’t-"

"He saved Fireflight from crashing yesterday."

"He what?"

"He caught a bad air current, if Starscream hadn’t been there to catch him, he probably would have crashed. And he’s teaching me about maneuvering and aerodynamics and how to pull out of a nosedive if anything happens. Knowing more about flying, it makes me more confident." He looked up at Wheeljack, not sure when he had looked down, "It makes me less scared of flying high."

Wheeljack looked hesitant, "It has to be a trick. There’s no way they would help Autobots. You don’t know them Silverbolt-"

"Maybe you don’t know them," Silverbolt sighed, he was starting to understand how the others felt. "We spent the whole morning with them today. They were helpful, and funny, and," he hesitated. He knew how it would sound, but he had to tell the truth. "It felt good to be around other fliers, it felt right."

Silverbolt winced at the brief flash of hurt in the other’s field, "It’s not-"

"No, it’s ok. But you spend more time with Powerglide, or Skyfire. I don’t want you talking to the Decepticons Silverbolt. It’s not safe."

"It’s not really the same."

Wheeljack looked at him for a long moment, "I need to talk to Optimus about this. Promise me you won’t see them again?"

"I… I don’t know if I can."

***

"I really don’t think we should do this!" Silverbolt protested as they walked down the corridors.

"Prime said it was our choice. I choose to join Starscream and his trine," Slingshot said.

"You don’t even know if they’ll let us join them."

"Why wouldn’t they?" Air Raid asked. "They spent 5 hours with us Silverbolt. Skywarp even hugged me. Are you telling me you don’t think it just feels right, being with other fliers?"

"Of course, but-"

"No. I’m tired of this. I don’t want to fight them."

"None of us do," Fireflight added.

"What about Ratchet and Wheeljack? They’ve taught us everything about the Autobots, about Earth. Do you really just want to leave them?"

"Maybe Silverbolt’s right guys…" Skydive said.

"Look," Slingshot stopped, turning towards them. "I’ve made my decision. You can all do whatever you want. I’m going to see Starscream and the trine, and I’m going with them. They understand me — they understand _us_ like no one here does."

"I understand how you feel."

All five of them spun around to to look at the new voice. "Skyfire?" Air Raid asked.

"I crashed long before the war started. When I woke up, I didn’t understand anything. I trusted Starscream. We had been friends since we met at the Iacon Science Academy."

"So why did you leave him?"

"I left the Decepticons. Starscream… he changed. And the Decepticons, they were cruel, they hurt others, they hurt each other. I couldn’t live like that. I can’t stop you from leaving, but you need to know what the Decepticons are like. They’re not nice. I don’t think you’d like being with them."

"The trine’s not like that," Fireflight protested.

"Yeah, everyone says how terrible all the Decepticons are," Air Raid agreed.

"But they’ve been nothing but nice to us," Skydive agreed.

Skyfire looked at them for a moment. "That sounds like the Starscream I used to know," he said finally, a small smile tugging at his lips.

Slingshot and Air Raid turned, starting back towards the exit. Skydive followed a moment later, then Fireflight. Silverbolt watched them for a moment, before looking back at Skyfire, "I can’t leave them."

Skyfire nodded, watching him jog after the others.

***

"They’re much better," Thundercracker murmured. There was no need for him to keep his voice down, the Aerialbots were all in the air, two hundred meters away with engines roaring. But it was what he did when he got worried.

"It’s great isn’t it? I can’t believe how fast they’re learning!" Skywarp chimed, apparently not noticing how the mood had changed.

"What are we going to do Starscream?"

"What? Do about what?" Skywarp asked, confused.

Starscream shook his head, "I really didn’t expect them to improve this fast. Probably the best students I ever had. If the newbuilds at the academy had been like this…" he muttered.

"But it’s good that they’re learning, isn’t it?"

Starscream ignored him, but Thundercracker sighed, "What happens in the next battle 'Warp?"

"…What do you mean?"

"Are you gonna shoot at them?" Starscream finally asked.

"What? No, of course… not," the moment when Skywarp understood was obvious. "Oh."

After just a couple of lessons, the Aerialbots had improved tenfold. Their skills still didn’t measure up the command trine, or any seeker that had been engaged in a four million year war, of course, but with a bit more practice, they would be formidable opponents.

And they would be opponents. They were enemy combatants and the Decepticon second in command had just taught them everything they needed to know about flying.

"I… I thought we would have more time," Skywarp said sadly.

"That would just make this harder," Thundercracker reasoned. "This was a bad idea."

"Never really expected to get attached," Starscream muttered as the five Aerialbots came in for a landing in decent, if not perfect formation.

"That was so great! That was great, wasn’t it?!" Slingshot practically shouted. He wasn’t alone in his enthusiasm.

*Do we tell them?* Thundercracker asked over comms as the Aerialbots celebrated their flight.

*Tell them what? 'You know what you’re doing now, so we’re going to stop helping you so we can kill you before you kill us'?*

Skywarp physically winced at that.

"Is something wrong?" Silverbolt asked.

"No," Starscream said before anyone else could, "You preformed well."

"You really think so?" Skydive asked, glancing back at the others.

"Of course."

"That’s great, because there was something we wanted to talk with you about."

"Oh?" Starscream raised an optical ridge.

"We want to join you!" Air Raid blurted out.

"You… what?"

"We want to join the Decepticons," Skydive clarified.

The three seekers exchanged looks.

"You’ve done more for us than the Autobots ever have," Slingshot said. "The Decepticons is where we need to be if we want to be the best."

"You all feel this way?" Thundercracker asked carefully.

Four affirmatives sounded as Silverbolt stared at the ground. All seven pairs of optics were on him. Finally, he sighed, "I don’t know. The Autobots seem so sure that the Decepticons are all terrible, but you’ve been so nice to us. And it’s been great learning from you and spending time with other flightframes…"

"But? Are you really going to believe Optimus Prime over everything that’s happened the last few days?" Slingshot challenged.

"It’s not just Optimus," Silverbolt made a point of not making optic contact with anyone. "Wheeljack and Ratchet said the same thing."

"And they follow Optimus!" Air Raid protested. "Of course they’re going to agree with him!"

"What about Skyfire?"

Starscream tensed at that, though the Aerialbots’ attention was focused on Silverbolt.

"He spent time with the Decepticons, and he told us…" he trailed off, glancing up at the seekers. "Sorry."

*This is good, right?* Skywarp asked. *We can be on the same side,* his tone betrayed his uncertainty however. Starscream could feel his trine’s dis-ease growing with his own. This was a bad idea.

"We still want to join," Slingshot said boldly.

Silverbolt sighed, "I’ll go where you do."

"No."

All optics were on Starscream.

"What? But you just told us we were good!"

"Star…" Thundercracker started to protest, half heartedly.

"You aren’t joining the Decepticons."

*Star, I don’t want to fight them!* Skywarp’s protests were a lot more earnest.

*You want them to deal with Megatron?! You know how he treats us. What do you think he’s going to do when Slingshot opens his big mouth? Or when Silverbolt goes around showing his morals?*

Skywarp shrank back at the reprimand, looking back at the Aerialbots. "Star’s right… You should go back to the Ark," he couldn’t quite keep the sadness out of his voice.

"No!" Air Raid stepped forward determinately. "You just told us how good we were doing. We can be an asset to the Decepticons. Give me one reason why you don’t want us to join you!"

"I thought you liked us?" Fireflight asked, looking uncharacteristically vulnerable. It was impossible to miss in that moment just how young he was, how young they all were.

Skywarp apparently couldn’t help himself. He surged forward, throwing his arms around the other jet, "Of course we like you!"

Fireflight was clearly to stunned by the reaction to do anything.

"Is it because of me?" Silverbolt asked softly. "I don’t want to be the reason they can’t be happy."

"We want to keep learning under you. Please Starscream," Skydive practically pleaded.

Protocols Starscream had forgotten about eons ago started to kick in. Ones he hadn’t used since his days teaching at the academy, a need to protect, to nurture, to build the camaraderie that existed in seeker communities like no where else he had been on Cybertron.

"We can keep teaching you," Thundercracker said hesitantly. "We can work something out."

"Prime told us we have to choose. We can’t stay with the Autobots if we keep coming here," Skydive told them.

Starscream shook his head He wanted this. He wanted what he used to have so very very long ago. So long ago that he had forgotten what it felt like. There where nearly a dozen seekers in the Decepticon ranks on Earth, and they all hated each other. Almost all the Decepticons hated each other. Most of them hated him more than anyone else.

But these Aerialbots didn’t hate him. They wanted to be with him. They wanted to learn from him. He was sick of all the hate. He was sick of being alone with his trine. He was sick of trying to keep Skyfire from getting shot on the battlefield. He was sick of Megatron.

*I’m going with them.*

*What?* Skywarp and Thundercracker echoed in almost perfect unison.

It was too much to say. There weren’t enough words to describe how he felt, so he pushed those feelings down their trine bond instead. *Come with me,* it was plea. He wouldn’t try to coerce them, or even persuade them. Starscream knew they recognized how he felt. He needed things to change. And despite what the Decepticons officially believed, they all knew the Autobots weren’t incompetent idiots. With the command trine on their side, with their skills and Decepticon intel, they might actually have a chance to end this war.

*Star…* Thundercracker looked between him and the Aerialbots. Starscream knew the arguments, 'you’re doing this for newbuilds you just met?' 'You’re willing to betray everything we believe in?' 'You would choose them over us?' But he also knew that neither of his trinemates believed any of those arguments.

*I can’t make this choice for you. But I can’t do this anymore,* coolant welled up behind his optics and sent an override to stop it. *Please,* he added before turning back to the Aerialbots.

"You will fly under me as arial commander?"

"Yes!"

"Absolutely!"

Even Silverbolt nodded.

*Star, are you sure?* Skywarp asked, *What if the Autobots don’t want us? They could lock us up if we show up with them.*

*If the Autobot second came to us wanting to defect would you take the chance?* Starscream asked. It took him a moment to fully process Skywarp’s words. *Us?* he asked, actually turning towards him.

Skywarp shrugged, *Well, yeah. We’re not gonna let you leave us.*

Starscream looked to Thundercracker. *We’re trine,* he said simply. *And… you’re not wrong. About any of it.*

Starscream smiled. Genuinely smiled. He couldn’t remember the last time he had done that. He turned back to the Aerialbots, "You don’t want to join the Decepticons. Everything Skyfire told you was true. Megatron is an abusive, pit headed fragger."

The Aerialbots exchanged looks, "But you said-"

"You will fly under me as the new head of Autobot Air Command."

"You want to join the Autobots?" Silverbolt’s optics were nearly whiting out with surprise.

"I’m not willing to let you get yourself killed," Starscream said, crossing his arms.

"But-"

"Prime can’t very well be worse than Megatron."

"He’s really that bad?" Firefly asked.

Starscream didn’t answer. "Keep up," he said, transforming and taking to the air. Skywarp and Thundercracker followed quickly after. They Aerialbots exchanged glances before following suit.

Firefly and Air Raid took turns rambling excitedly before Starscream told them in no uncertain terms to shut up. Still, the excitement radiated throughout the bond.

They landed just outside the range of the Ark’s air defenses and walked the rest of the way. Just as they came into view of the Ark’s entrance, half a dozen bots came out to meet them.

"Starscream?" Skyfire asked, as soon as they where in earshot. He was the only one who wasn’t armed.

"They want to join us!" Fireflight called out, rushing ahead.

"They what?!" Ironhide asked, incredulously.

"We have decided that remaining with the Decepticons is no longer in our best interest," Starscream explained.

"You can’t be serious," Ratchet stood with his arms crossed. "We’re supposed to believe that?"

"You don’t really expect us to just welcome you with open arms," Ironhide said, not lowering his blaster.

"You have too!" Fireflight protested, very intentionally putting himself between Skywarp and the guns pointed at them.

"Optimus said we couldn’t train with the seekers and stay with the Autobots, but they want to join the Autobots! Isn’t that a good thing?" Silverbolt asked.

"They’re lying to you," Ratchet scoffed, taking a step forward defensively. "This is _Starscream_ we’re talking about."

The Aerialbots discomfort visibly increased, but other then a slight frown, Starscream didn’t seem to take any offense at the comment.

"Silverbolt, you and the others need to come back here. You can’t trust the Decepticons," Wheeljack said, looking like he wanted to snatch them up and cary them back inside the arc.

"You keep saying that but they’ve helped us!" Slingshot protested.

"They’ve never done anything to hurt us, and they didn’t ask us to choose between their help and being Autobots," Skydive put in.

"You’ve told us that we can’t trust them, but don’t really know them. None of you," Fireflight said.

"I do." All eyes turned to Skyfire. "I knew Starscream long before the war ever started," he stepped forward towards the trine. "Everything the Aerialbots have said about Starscream is how I knew him. It’s who he was back on Cybertron, and if he says he wants to defect, I trust him.

"When I first woke up, you where the same Starscream I had known back then. It was only when Megatron was around that you… changed."

Starscream averted his gaze.

"I missed you Star. I want things to be the way they used to be," Skyfire held out his hand, waiting.

It was a long moment before Starscream reached up to take it, "I want that too."

"Ok, well this is all very sweet and touching, but you don’t really expect us to buy it, do you?" Ironhide huffed.

"I think that Skyfire and the Aerialbots have made some very good points," everyone turned to see Optimus standing at the entrance to the arc. "Starscream, Skywarp, Thundercracker, if you truly wish to join the Autobots, we would be happy to have you.

A cheer went up from some of the Aerialbots, and Fireflight turned to throw his arms around Skywarp. Starscream looked up at Skyfire, who was smiling back at him, then at his trine, and the Aerialbots, and for the first time since before the war had started, he felt like he was home.

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like Fireflight and Skywarp would get along well. This is def not meant to be shippy, more like Skywarp taking on a big brother roll towards him. I hope my characterization of everyone here was ok, I feel like G1 really cheated us out of personalities in a lot of characters but I did my best.
> 
> Comments and Kudos always appreciated!


End file.
